Southern POV

We could see what looked to be a Trench Abyssal fleet, in the distance. The ship girls were scrambling around. They looking like they were getting ready for battle. Blue and the others were still fleeing and I was about to join them, but I faintly heard Enterprise yelling something at me, but I couldn't make out what she was saying. But before she could release an energy bolt at me, we could hear loud splashing and the same blood curdling roar as before.

Enterprise changed her attention to where the roar came from, and I did as well. Whatever was traveling underwater beforehand had surfaced revealing its form to everyone. It was big, much bigger than the X-class around it, probably about 5 or 6 meters tall and maybe 6 or 7 meters wide. It seemed to be made from the same black steel that all other Abyssal monsters seemed to be made out of. The monster had four glowing red eyes with flames hovering around itself. It's mouth was large and like all other Abyssals I've seen so far, it had large blunt teeth. There were three large triple turrets on the creature from what I could see, probably battleship caliber guns, one on top of it, and two on either side of it. Many smaller guns adorned its sides in turrets that looked like the front part of an I-class had been taken off and mounted onto it. But one of the most notable things about it was the six large white tentacles, three on either side, that seemed to be propelling it forward at the moment. The creature looked like a monster from the pits of hell.

I froze for a few moments as I watched the creature charging in the direction of the ship girls. The ship girls started firing at it with barely any hesitation, but the creature's armor seemed incredibly tough as it seemed to barely even notice the attacks. Then something happened that made me feel like my stomach turned inside out, as one of the white tentacles of the creature reached out and picked one of the destroyer ship girls off the water's surface, and seemed to pull her in, towards its mouth.

I wanted to fire my guns to stop it, but the shells wouldn't reach in time, as when I had aimed my guns at the monster I was too late. As I and everyone there watched as the monster tossed the girl into its mouth. I looked away when I first saw its mouth slam shut, even from this distance, the sound of tearing metal could be heard.

Then I could hear yelling, from Enterprise and the other ship girls, to retreat back to base, and not to engage the monster. That they didn't have the power to defeat something like that. Then I could see Enterprise turn around to look at me, I stared at her in what I thought was a look of sorrow for the fate of the poor destroyer ship girl. Though I could see Enterprise seeming to hesitate for a moment before turning around and firing an energy bolt at the monster to distract it while her allies fell back.

I hesitated for a moment to join in, before I felt a hand grasping my right hand, and pulling me away from the battle. When I turned around I could see it was Blue, it looked like she had noticed I wasn't with her and the others and had come back for me. I turned to look at her face, and could just see a blank expression as she now sped up to take us away before the monster noticed us as well. But we didn't go anywhere, as I stayed still now, not wanting to damn the ship girls to that monster.

"We need to help them" I say.

Blue turned to look at me and shook her head "you already saw what they were going to do with us, Southern. We need to go while we are still unnoticed" again Blue tried pulling me along southwards away from battle, but like before we didn't move at all.

"I know" I say "but, we can't just damn them to that monster's stomach!" I now raise my voice, though not to a full yell "we don't need to defeat it, but perhaps we can just buy them some time"

"Southern look" Blue now says as she turns my head to look in the direction of the monster. I allow it and I can see the monster was now rampaging, but now its fleet joined in, and the entire scene looked like our chaos. As ship girls tried to flee, but got snatched up and either eaten by the monster, or literally torn to pieces by its underlings.

I wanted to vomit from just seeing this, but I also wanted to destroy that monster, to sink it completely. So that the monster would stop inflicting the true sort of terror it was currently doing. But before I could react by aiming my guns, I felt Blue laying a hand on my shoulder "we can't help them right now, Southern. We'd only lose our lives without accomplishing anything if we try and go against that thing"

I sighed a bit frustrated before turning towards to face the monster "I've already made up my mind and you can't change it, Blue"

I could hear Blue sigh in frustration as well, before Blue was suddenly upon me. I was caught off guard by her and She seemed to quickly find the levers to remove my riggings. I barely had any time to react as I felt the strength that my riggings give me, leaving my body "hold on what are y-"

Then before I could react I heard Blue say "I'm doing this for your own good, Southern" then I felt a pain on the back of my head and everything went black.

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3rd person POV

Blue had just knocked Southern out, by 'relatively' lightly punching her on the back of the head. Southern fell face first onto the water's surface, but was quickly picked up by Blue, after she had gotten Southern's riggings on her own riggings.

Blue looked back at the chaos that the Ra-class and its underlings was causing, she pitied the ship girls, but didn't see that she could do anything for them, so she turned around and sailed away as fast as she could, now with Southern unconscious in her arms, towards where Xia and their X-class went.

Now she muttered to herself "such a stubborn woman you're, Southern" she glanced down at Southern seemed to think before muttering to herself again "I never noticed… your face looks familiar, like I've at least seen you before I met you at Guam, but… how? It's like with those ship girls from before"

She now let out a sigh, as she saw Xia far from her position "you're going to be really angry when you wake up, aren't you? Well it's better that than being dead"

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Time skip 45 minutes

Now it had been a little while since Blue had knocked out Southern. Southern was still unconscious, and in Blue's arms. Their small fleet had joined back together and were sailing southwards. They didn't really have a place to go, but they thought it best to get away from Midway as fast as possible seeing as that Ra-class had made a massive mess there.

Blue and Xia had made sure that the Ra-class wasn't following them, with their planes, though they had also seen that most of the ship girls had made it out from the battle, though some weren't all in one piece. Though there were still many ship girls who had died, and those that did, died very gruesome deaths. But right now Blue and Xia tried to not remember what they had seen from their planes, and tried to put their minds on much happier thoughts.

But now they did find a way to distract themselves from the gruesome scene, as they had spotted Sunken on her monster riggings, some distance away from them. Though they didn't see any monster Abyssals with her, so they hoped that she was a friendly Abyssal. So they continued forward, to try and join up with Sunken, even if she was a Plains Abyssal, they guessed this since they were incredibly far from the Trench. I mean they had already gotten attacked by the ship girls, why not try to see if the other Abyssals were friendly. Though Xia hated the plan since her old friends were all sunk by the Plains Abyssals, but Blue was able to convince her since it was better to have a plan, rather than to just aimlessly wandering around with no plan.

Though now Blue could feel Southern moving in her arms, it seemed like she was starting to wake up. It was a few seconds until Southern started to sit up on her own, she groaned slightly in pain as she held the back of her head.

Blue greeted her waking up by saying "ah good. you're" It took Southern a moment to realize what had happened and where she was.

She turned to look at Blue and without hesitating yelled at her in anger "Blue! What did you do?! We could've helped them!"

Blue winced from suddenly getting yelled at, from not even a meter away. Though now she spoke in an irritated voice "so no thanks for me saving you from certain doom, I see"

"And how many ship girls did you damn to that monster in doing so?!"

"The ship girls would've attacked us, if that thing didn't show up, you know?"

"So we turn tail and not even try to offer them a little support?! That thing ATE a ship girl, and probably ate more ship girls that WE could've helped!"

"And where would that have got us Southern?!" Blue now suddenly raised her voice which surprised Southern a bit, but it didn't change her mood "if we had fought that thing we WOULD have been that monster's meals!"

Southern didn't respond to this for a moment and just stared angrily at Blue. Xia was there, but decided it was best not to try and get involved for now, as to be honest it was scary seeing the two princesses yelling at each other.

Now Blue sighed and lowered her voice "look, Southern, I wanted to help but I saw no way we could without damning ourselves to be that monster's meal alongside the ship girls. I know you're angry at me for my decision, and I know from what I've seen that you're a stubborn woman. So I have no point in continuing this argument as it will get us nowhere, but hating each other"

Southern continued to look angrily at Blue for a moment before she silently put her riggings back on. Then she sailed over to take head of the formation, forming a Diamond, but this time Blue was in the back. She hoped that Southern wouldn't stay angry with her for too long. While she could tell Southern was stubborn, she didn't know what Southern was like with forgiving people, all she could was hope that Southern wouldn't stay angry with her for too long.

As for Southern, she was angry at Blue for stopping her from helping the ship girls, especially the ones who got eaten. While they were complete strangers who seemed like they were about to attack them before, she couldn't help but feel sorry for them. Southern didn't want to be angry at Blue, as she now saw no way to converse without the mood being awkward. Well the mood was already awkward since no one had spoken in several minutes.

Xia who was still there thought the mood was both awkward and tense, from the yelling that the two princesses had done. And she didn't feel that it was a good idea to talk for the moment, not even to ask where they were going. Though she did monitor Sunken, who was getting closer and closer every passing minute.

So for now they didn't bother to decide where to go and just sailed southwestward. The same direction that Sunken was sailing towards them. Sunken was actually on the horizon several kilometers away, and barely visible with the naked eye.

Southern was simply looking down as she thought on what they should do, she was starting to cool down, even if she and Blue were just yelling at each other. But after a while of sailing in the direction of Sunken, with only Blue and Xia paying attention, she felt something odd. Even from this distance she could feel Sunken's presence, but it was odd for her, because it felt like she knew Sunken.

She looked up and spotted Sunken, now only about two kilometers away from them. She tilted her head slightly and her anger towards Blue disappeared and was replaced by curiosity towards Sunken "who is that?" Southern asked aloud.

"We don't know, but she's been sailing towards us since we left Midway" Blue stated.

Now in a serious tone Xia asked "could she be a Plains Abyssal sent as a reinforcement to Midway?"

"Possibly" Blue said.

"I don't think so" Southern said "she's alone, and without so much as a monster Abyssal. Maybe…" now Southern paused for a moment as she continued to feel that odd feeling like she knew the approaching Sunken "Maybe she's like us. Wandering the ocean for answers to this world, and who we are"

"Maybe…" Blue said with a little doubt in her voice.

Southern briefly glanced back at Blue before turning to look back at the approaching Sunken.

A few short minutes went by before Southern and the others were just a few meters away from Sunken.

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Southern POV

I stood in front of our small fleet, just a few meters away from a person who had gotten my curiosity. She was an Abyssal like the rest of us, but something about her felt… familiar. She had long white hair, with part of her hair tied up in a ponytail on the left side, and she seemed to be um… how do I phrase this? 'well endowed' in the chest area, and had glowing orange eyes. She wore a black sundress that ended at about her mid thigh, and wore black steel looking gauntlets on both arms, and black steel boots.

She sat on what looked to be a giant monster head, similar to mine, but much, much bigger. Two black flight decks, cut through the center by red energy that seemed to seep through, were placed on either side of the monster head, and two single gun turrets were placed behind her, with a bunch of machinery underneath, and more guns poking out of odd places.

We had stopped sailing towards each other until we were about five meters away from her. She stared at all four of us with what looked to be curiosity, but soon her eyes fell solely on me, but this time with the stare not that of a stranger.

The mood seemed awkward for a moment until Blue broke it when she spoke "hello there" she said and I could tell she sailed closer by the sound of moving water, though I didn't stop looking at the mysterious Abyssal "I'm Blue Flame Princess, and these are my allies Southern War Princess, and Xia. May I ask your name?"

The Abyssal seemed to be in a sort of trance for a moment until she was snapped out of it by Blue, and looked to her "Ah, Uh... sorry. I'm Sunken Aircraft Carrier Oni" even the way she spoke seemed familiar, it was calm, and as best I can describe it to be caring as well. Though now she looked back down at me and tilted her head before saying "uh… do I know you from somewhere else? You seem familiar"

I gulped a bit before stepping forward towards her "not that I can remember" I respond "but perhaps we did know each other before we were… well like this" Sunken just tilted her head slightly.

There was few awkward seconds before Xia now spoke, to break said silence "how about you join us Sunken, since you're alone it seems"

"Ah! Join you?!" She suddenly exclaimed before lowering her voice "oh uh… sure, but where are you going? I was intending on going to Northern Eagle to see if the Abyssals there could help me" Suddenly I felt the mood darken, as I could sense a sudden growing anger in Xia.

"Are you a... Plains Abyssal?" Xia calmly asked, though I could sense the venom that was hidden behind her calm voice. I could also see that Blue seemed to look at Sunken suspiciously. Now that it came to mind, both of them had gotten attacked by Plains Abyssals before, so they understandably seemed not to like them too much. The X-class also seemed to become agitated at the sudden mention of Plains Abyssals, and seemed ready to fight as its gun now pointed directly at Sunken.

Though I could see Sunken seem to cower at the sudden darkening mood around the other three. She seemed scared and pushed herself up between the two secondary guns that were normally behind her "WaitWaitWait!" She yelled "please don't hurt me! I-i was just on my way there after my Base was destroyed by ship girls and I thought the Abyssals there could help me!"

Now I myself didn't feel the same apparent hatred for Sunken, actually to be honest I felt love towards her, though not the erotic kind of way. More like she felt like family that I knew in my old life, like a sister that I loved, and one that I still felt affection for. I wanted to try and defend her, but I didn't know enough on how to make a good case to protect her.

"You didn't answer the question" Blue now said, before speaking slowly "are, you a Plains Abyssal?" While her voice was slow, her tone was menacing.

"You're all from the Trench, aren't you?!" She shouted, which seemed at least to me, to confirm everyone's suspicions that Sunken was a Plains Abyssal. But then she continued "yo-you got it all wrong! I'm not your enemy!"

"And why should we believe you?" Xia now asked in a menacing voice, as her monster riggings mouth opened up, prime to launch swarms of Banshees.

Sunken seemed to cower as far back as she could on her riggings as she could before saying "I-I swear on it! Pl-please if you just lower your weapons I can explain why"

Now I moved between them and Sunken in a protective manner "I think we should hear her explanation" I say.

"And why should we?!" Xia raised her voice "she's one of those Plains Abyssals. The kind that sank Phoebe, and Fran" the two names she brought up I assumed were the names of two of her friends that sank before we met her.

"Just because she is a Plains Abyssal, doesn't mean she was with the ones that sank your friends" I respond in a calm voice.

Xia seemed like she was about to rebuttal, but was stopped by Blue when she said "don't try arguing with her, Xia. Southern is stubborn, and seems resolute on not sinking Sunken" Xia seemed to listen and just stared angrily at Sunken. Though now Blue turned to look at me and Sunken "how about this, Southern. Sunken can explain herself to us, and join us, BUT if she turns out to be working with those same Plains Abyssals that attacked me, and sank Xia's friends or she is working in some way to sink all of us, we'll sink her"

Even without me being able to see Sunken, I could still hear her fearing for her life behind me. I sighed upon hearing what Blue said, but I thought it the best solution for now. I nodded in confirmation and gesture for the X-class to lower its weapon which it did. Xia stood down as well, but I could see her glaring at Sunken with murderous intent.

I turned around and could see that Sunken seemed to have calmed down when they lowered their weapons. I smile and say "alright then, you heard them and their deal. Now, can you explain please?"

"Start from why you aren't our enemy" Blue said.

"Well you see, I am what you call a 'Plains Abyssal' and from what I know you're all Trench Abyssals. Have you already heard that most other Abyssals besides Trench Abyssals are hostile to you?"

There was a collective "Yeah" amongst the three of us.

"Well, That is only the Abyssals near the Trench, that aren't Trench Abyssals. The Abyssals there are extremely hostile to the Trench Abyssals, mainly because they fear them. But most other Abyssals that aren't in those areas don't really care unless they are attacked by Trench Abyssals, well I should say they don't care unless they are attacked by any other Abyssals"

I could hear audible confusion from Blue and when I turned to look at her I could see her tilting her head. Then after a second she asked "please explain in a more clear way"

Sunken paused and seemed to be searching for a more direct way of saying it "The Abyssals near the Trench that aren't Trench Abyssals are normally hostile towards Abyssals like you. But Abyssals like me, which I'm from the south in a location decently far from the Trench, Don't really care to much about the Trench Abyssals, as long as they don't bother us"

There was a pause for a moment before Blue spoke "alright then, do you work with the Abyssals near the Trench?"

Sunken seemed to hesitate for a second before saying "yes" as soon as she said that I could see Xia's monster riggings mouth open up, then Sunken exclaimed "Waitwaitwait! I work with them, but I don't really agree to their treatment of the Trench Abyssals!" Xia looked doubtful of Sunken's explanation, but as soon as she saw me looking at her, her monster riggings closed its mouth.

Sunken let out a relieved sigh, before I asked "alright then, we get that you're friendly towards us, but do you know why the ship girls are at war with us?"

"The ship girls…" she said in a tone that sounded like she didn't like the sound of them "they just see us as monsters that need to be exterminated. Even when we try to be peaceful with them, they still attack us. I once met a princess and her fleet before they tried to make peaceful contact with the ship girls. The Abyssals who were able to get to safety said that the princess was knocked unconscious, along with a few other people and anyone who tried to flee was shot at"

There was a moment of silence as it seemed we all just thought about what Sunken had just said. Then after a minute or two I asked "what happened to the princess?"

A small frown appeared on Sunken's face "she was captured, besides that we know nothing. Only speculation exists on what might have happened to her"

Again there was a few seconds again of silence before I spoke "you said you were going towards Midway, right?"

Sunken nodded and said "yeah, that's right"

I let out a nervous chuckle and said "Ah that's not a good idea. The ship girls destroyed it, and…" I trailed off not really wanting to reveal that we also helped destroy it.

"And?" She asked.

"And, a really big monster Abyssal appeared. It rampaged and from what I know, it ate several ship girls" when I mentioned that the monster ate several ship girls I glanced back at Blue for a moment before looking back to Sunken.

"It ate them?!" Sunken exclaimed as she seemed to be horrified, then she spoke in a quiet voice to herself, that I could barely hear "perhaps that was a Ra-class, but why is something like that so far from the Trench?"

I simply nodded at her question, and didn't respond to what she said to herself "so I don't think it is a good idea to go to Midway, and it my still be there"

Sunken seemed to become sad upon hearing what I said and she sighed "of course the base I was going towards got destroyed. What do I do now?"

With hesitation I responded "ah, you can join us. We don't mind it" after I said that I could faintly hear frustrated grumbling coming from Xia, clearly she did mind it.

"Really?!" Sunken exclaimed, now her mood seeming to become much more excited.

"Yeah" I respond with a smile on my face "I mean you're alone, and you seem to know the Abyssals to the south more than us. So how about we go down south together?" I ask the last part to basically everyone, since it is better to have a plan rather than no plan.

I could see Sunken was excited at my invitation to join us, and I could see a happy smile on her face. Then suddenly an image of a woman appeared in my head. The woman was young, maybe twenty years old. She looked like a young beauty, with well taken care of white hair, braided into two buns on her head, her eyes were grey. But what was most striking was the smile she had, it looked exactly like Sunken, but then the image faded away, when the woman changed her expression to something that I couldn't see.

I blinked as I looked back at Sunken, still seeing the happy look on her face, now that I looked closer, Sunken and the woman's face looked similar *are they related perhaps?* I thought to myself *or… are they the same person?* I was a little confused with what had just happened and wondered what that vision was.

Though it seemed Sunken had noticed the change in my expression, and she said "is something wrong?" While I can't see Blue or Xia, I'm sure they changed their attention to me, after what Sunken asked.

"Ah, no no I'm fine" I say to reassure everyone, even though the woman I just saw I'm sure I knew from my past "I was just thinking about something, it is nothing important"

"Oh… ok" Sunken said.

Though when I turned around I could see that Blue seemed not to fully believe that what I was thinking about was just nothing. But it didn't seem like she would try to push me to say what I was thinking about, which kind of relieved me. Though now after a few seconds of silence I spoke "alright, uh… how about we start sailing southward? We can talk while we sail"

"That sounds good" Blue responds, though I can still see her eyeing me with a little suspicion. Xia simply nodded in confirmation, and when I turned back to look at Sunken, she had a smile on her face and gave a thumbs up.

"Alright then let's go"

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3rd person POV, Location Sakura Empire, Naval base Yokosuka

A Yamato class battleship could be seen entering the waters of the naval base. It was sailing slowly and was waiting for the tugboats to come help her to the dock.

On the deck of the battleship stood a woman, tall and beautiful. She had her long black hair with two black fox ears on her head, and nine, large, black fox tails behind herself. She had golden yellow eyes and had a large bust that would be impossible for any human to have, but she wasn't human, she was a ship girl, she was… the battleship Musashi.

She was wandering back and forth on her ship, waiting to meet the commander she'll be serving under. She wandered from the deck of her ship in front of turret one to the prow of her ship. A look of childish curiosity appeared on her face as she looked out across the harbor. She gazed curiously at the two large battleships, and two carriers. One of the battleships was in dry dock receiving retrofit, and the other battleship was being moved into another dry dock by tugboats. The carriers were just docked at a nearby pier. No doubt they were definitely greenhorns, it wasn't that long ago when more ship girls started appearing. But apparently these ship girls weren't made with solely wisdom cubes. Musashi didn't know how the 'science wizards' as she referred to scientists managed to make them, but she didn't mind the new faces that shared names with already existing ship girls.

A large smile spread across her face as she thought of meeting the new faces. She stared in wonder at the two other Yamato class battleships in the dock, and the Akagi class and Kaga class carriers docked at a pier. What might they be like? Will they be anything like herself, or her elder sister? Would they immediately be elite ships, or will it take time?

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Author's notes: so this chapter was interesting. In one day I wrote the first 3,000 words. Then after getting to the 4,000 word mark I wrote about 1,200 words on a concept I later decided against. So I had to rewrite a part that I spent about an hour writing, which is never a good feeling to write that much then decide against it.

Oh you also might see the first major appearance of a few important ships. Well… for later of course.

Anyways hope you all enjoy it! See you all in the next chapter :P